creating a scrapbook/ profile

Congratulations on the completion of your homestudy! My suggestion would be to call the woman that did your homestudy and ask her how many pages she suggests. I would also try hard to include as many photos of you as you do your husband and daughter. I would guess that birthmothers really associate with the potential adoptive mothers and would might not receive that initial favorable response to your profile if it looks like you are "out of the picture" so to speak. A couple of simple things you can do to dress up pages is to mat your photos with color cardstock or to put your photos on patterned paper. Using a corner rounder will soften the edges. You could sparingly use stickers to accentuate the photos. One of my friends said she was told that the birthmother in her adoption picked her because there were Winnie the Pooh stickers on one of the pages and Pooh was her favorite. That created an instant connection. I hope something similar will happen for you! Good luck. Jennifer

Thank you both for your input. That gives me an idea of where to start. I put a call into our social worker today to get some more specifics!! Thanks again!!

I agree you should try to make your picture book as cute as possible. Ours was pretty long. Our agency wanted pictures of every room in the house and outside front and back photos. We also had tons of family pictures. We already had 5 children so they each had their own page plus a page of my husband and I together, us alone, and a family photo. We put in photos of fun family vacations we'd gone on and favorite picnic spots etc. We put in pictures of every aunt, uncle, cousin and grandparent too. My understanding is that the book should show as much as possible who you are as a family. I am not much of a scrap booker but I got some templates and cut the pictures into hearts and stars etc. I also used colored paper. I didn't know I should use acid free paper and glue so after 2 years the album has some discoloring. Don't make the same mistake there. You can get a cheap family portrait done at Wal Mart. I know our book was one of the reasons my son's birth Mom picked us. She really liked that we went on fun adventures as a family and liked to be outdoors. Ironicly, our son, who is now 2 years old, was born with a severe brain defect that has left him wheelchair bound and on a feeding tube. Some of the things his birthmom hoped for him ( hiking in the mountains) will never come to pass. We still go on fun family adventures but they've had to be modified a bit. At 2 our son has visited many, many different states, been to 4 different beaches in 3 states, gone to Disney Land and Sea World etc. He may not get to run around and have fun but he is never left out. Sorry to ramble on off subject, to get back to the point, your album is one of the first impressions your birthmom will have of your family. A good first impression is important. It should also tell the story of who you are as a family. You never know what the birthmom will connect to. I know another family in our PRIDE class (this is a class that you have to take in Texas before you adopt, it goes over all issues of adoption in extreme detail) who were both doctors and quite well off. They didn't put much effort into their book. They didn't get picked at all. Good luck! Remember adoption is a roller coaster. J.

Do you remember when you were younger? Teen-preteen? My friends and I used to take photos of each other taking the picture. I think it might be neat if you had someone take a picture of you, maybe not with the camera infront of your face, but maybe with it hanging around your neck, or be in the process of bringing it up to take that "family memory". This way the birthmom could see you, just exactly as your family sees you.

Something I did was not address our letter to "Dear Birthmom" because actually she isn't a birthmom she is an expectant mom who is considering adoption and does not become a Birthmom until she sign's surrenders and you take on the role of adoptive mom , then and only then is her title "Birthmom" If you will be networking on your own or working with others that will be sending them out - don't use binders as they are harder to mail and cost more because of the bulk. You can use page protectiors and then tie them together with ribbon or something - much easier to handle. There are more helpful hints at [url]http://www.HeavenSentAdopt.com[/url] on preparing your letter. It's so hard to know what to do and what to say but remember - there is only one chance to make a good first impression with these letters and she will be previewing several other probably - make your stand out!!! Good luck!! Heavens Gifts

Be sure to include pictures of you doing every day things. Don't worry about big glamourous events. Most ladies are just trying to get a feel for your family life, your every day life. They just want to see what it would be like if their child was in their family. Talk about the little things, the traditions such as always going to your mother's house on Easter and always having a lamb cake, or always celebrating Thanksgiving at Grandma's or the fact that you go carolling on Christmas Eve. Don't forget things like hanging out with the neighbors or just sitting at the park. Just be "yourselves" in your book. There are no right or wrong ways to do this. Good Luck

We were asked to follow a specific guide line as it has been proven succesful in the past. Our profile ended up being 14 pages. Sounds like a lot but there are lots of photos of us in various activities such as ball games, travel, with family and especially with children. I also had my 2 older nieces and nephew write letters about us (this was precious- out of the mouths of babes, they say) We had to describe our home, our personalities, our families and so on. No scrapbook style here, though. We had ours professionally put together after we did all the writing and pulling of the pictures. I'm not good at scrap booking so this worked well for me. I also found that I wasn't in a great deal of picks as I am always behind the camera. What I did was set the timer on the camera and tried to act natural.......ya, right! Good luck and have fun.